Digital Mirrors: How Social Networking Sites Shape Teenagers’ Cultural Identity and Body Image Norms
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This Paper presents the results of the influence of social networking sites (SNS) on forming the cultural identity and body image ideals of teenagers. In the contemporary online world, adolescents tend to be exposed to some notions of beauty, culture and lifestyle advertisement by the algorithm-led social media. Taking advantage of sociological theories of Social Comparison Theory, Cultivation Theory, Social Identity Theory, and Foucauldian theory of surveillance, this paper will contend, that SNS act as strong cultural institutions that reinforce certain questions of aesthetics and culture. The research employs a mixed theoretical and empirical method in its endeavor to examine the role of repetitive exposure to idealized images in the body dissatisfaction, cultural homogenization, and identity negotiation among the teenagers. The results indicate the disciplinary nature of social media as well as how adolescents contest, redefine, and renegotiate the cultural meaning via the digitized environment. This paper has shown that SNS do not simply affect adolescents but visibly, comparatively, and algorithmically reorganize identity.
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